Screencap from video posted by Jay Yoder Morningside resident Jay Yoder after Pittsburgh Police demanded they drop to the ground on June 1, 2020. Jay Yoder, a resident of Pittsburgh’s Morningside neighborhood, was asked by protesters to be a medic for a Black Lives Matter demonstration that took place in East Liberty on June 1, 2020. They have experience as an international human rights observer, documenting conflicts in Colombia and the Middle East. Yoder documented and filmed the melee that occurred on June 1, when Pittsburgh Police fired tear gas, sponge rounds, and pepper spray at a group of about 100 marchers on Centre Avenue. Some were injured by the police projectiles, and several people, including Yoder, filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of Pittsburgh and the police as a result.
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No one on Pittsburgh City Council is opposed to enacting legislation to ban no-knock warrants in the city.
But council members Wednesday delayed passage of a proposed bill until it can iron out any legal issues with the law and meet with community members who are lobbying for it.
Bans on law enforcement agencies serving a warrant without announcing their presence have been lobbied for across the country since the March 26, 2020, shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky. Taylor was shot by plainclothes officers who entered her boyfriend’s apartment to serve a warrant that was part of a drug investigation.
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Breonna Taylor’s shooting death last year by police in Louisville, Ky., has inspired cities across the country to enact legislation banning no-knock warrants.
Taylor, 26, was shot March 26, 2020, by plainclothes police officers with a no-knock warrant. They entered her boyfriend’s apartment, where she was at the time, and the boyfriend fired what he called a warning shot, causing police to return fire. Police went to the apartment as part of a drug investigation.
Taylor’s death was among many highlighted during Black Lives Matter protests across the nation, including several in Pittsburgh.